It is important to memorize selected short passages of one or two verses as they will
give you quick access to all the important teachings of the Bible. But it can be even
a greater blessing to memorize longer passages such as entire chapters (or books) of the Bible. Here
are some reasons why you my want to memorize by the chapter.

The original authors of the Bible did not divide up their writings into verses or even
chapters. These were added a long time later. Memorizing individual verses does have a lot of value.
Learning 100 or more individual verses throughout the Bible, for example, can give
us a wide range of teachings on all important aspects of the Christian life. But, if we memorize a verse like this,
we are pulling them out of their context, and often do not know anything about the verses before and after it. That is, we may not
grasp the full depth of the passage. The real problem is that if we are not careful, we may misunderstand the
passage and learn (and teach) something that is not really correct.

Memorizing a verse without understanding its context can lead to misunderstanding of the passage

Meditation on a memorized paragraph or chapter can ensure that you correctly understand what is
being taught. It can yield spiritual insight beyond anything which you may have thought possible.

Memorizing a large passage gives us a special advantage if we are involved in or
teaching a Bible study on that book or chapter.

If you memorize an entire passage, this gives you a better understanding of the what is being taught. You
can meditate on it and learn from it even if you don't have a Bible with you, no
matter where you are.

How to memorize an longer passage of Scripture

It needs to be said again that there is nothing spiritual about memorizing Scripture unless the scriptures
you learn is used as a mechanism for transforming your mind and heart. You need to make use of it after you
have learned it. There is limited spiritual gain in memorizing Scripture if you do not understand what it means.
There is limited spiritual value to your efforts to memorize scripture if you do not learn it well.

Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman
who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth. (2Ti 2:15)

For Ezra had devoted himself to the study and observance of the Law of the LORD, and to
teaching its decrees and laws in Israel. (Ezr 7:10)

Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers.
But his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night.
He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers. (Psalm 1:1-3)

The following is an outline of what I recommend to do to memorize a large passage or chapter
of Scripture. Find your own system. The goal is to know it well and to understand well what you know.
Remember, quality is more important
than quantity. This may seem like hard work. It is, there is no question about it. If you
are convinced that this is a good way to memorize scripture then just resist the urge to do it
the easy way. Remember that this is the word of God and you owe it to yourself to tackle it
as hard as you can with dedication and determination.

As time goes on you will be able to do this sort of thing quicker than you may first think. Work
at it every day and you will see the power in taking a small step forward every day. Soon you will
know a whole chapter then two and more. Soon you will know a whole book. If a few years you will know
a couple of books or even much more. The alternative, of course, is to rush through it quickly so that you can
move onto the next section. But after that same few years, you will be disappointed
because you
will not know what you learned well at all.

Select the chapter of Scripture you wish to memorize.

Read the passage over and over again for familiarity. Read it over a
few times each day while you are learning it and for some time afterwards. Read
it carefully and slowly, making sure you look at each word, each time.

Do a Bible study on the passage you are memorizing. Use a commentary and
any other resources that you can get access to. Make sure that you have a
reasonable understanding of what the passage is about.

From your study, write out a brief outline of the teaching of the passage.

Break up the passage into several logical sections or paragraphs. Do not worry about the verse
references.

Write the passage out on a strip of paper as illustrated below.
A half a piece (of 8-1/2 x 11) paper holds most chapters and fits in a pocket
when it is folded in half. Assign topics where it is
applicable. Think carefully about the topic you assign. On the paper,
highlight the first five words of each paragraph. They are the key
to that paragraph. Paying special attention to the key will assist
in remembering which passage is next in the chapter.

Start memorizing the entire batch, starting with the first paragraph.

Do not move onto any other new material until you can recite the entire
chapter quickly and in a loud enthusiastic voice, as if you were reading
it to a group. You should also be able to write it out longhand with no
errors and without peeking. Recite it out loud to another person too.

Read the previous point again, because it will make the difference
between a successful and unsuccessful scripture memory program.

Do not neglect the time it takes to meditate on each portion and figure out
what your response to it should be.

Read the previous point again, because it also will make the difference
between a successful and unsuccessful scripture memory program.

The following table is an illustration of what you could prepare if you
wanted to memorize the third chapter of Philippians. The first part is
the outline of the chapter. I have broken the chapter up into seven paragraphs.
You can use the first five words of the passage as a 'key' to which paragraph it
is. If you memorize these seven 'keys', then you will be able to remember
which order the paragraphs occur easier because that is the way they will
be associated in you mind. I suggest that you be able to take the outline and say all 7 of the keys both from 1 through to 7 and from 7 back through to 1.

Philippians Chapter 3 21 verses
7 Paragraphs

Finally, my brothers, rejoice in

Watch out for those dogs

If anyone else thinks he

But whatever was to my

Not that I have already

All of us who are

Join with others in following

Philippians 3:1-1 Paragraph 1 of 7

Topic:

Finally, my brothers, rejoice in
the Lord! It is no trouble for me to
write the same things to you again,
and it is a safeguard for you.

Philippians 3:2-4 Paragraph 2 of 7

Topic:

Watch out for those dogs,
those men who do evil, those mutilators of
the flesh. For it is we who are the
circumcision, we who worship by the
Spirit of God, who glory in Christ
Jesus, and who put no confidence in
the flesh- though I myself have
reasons for such confidence.

Philippians 3:5-6 Paragraph 3 of 7

Topic:

If anyone else thinks he
has reasons to put confidence in the
flesh, I have more: circumcised on
the eighth day, of the people of
Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a
Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the
law, a Pharisee; as for zeal,
persecuting the church; as for
legalistic righteousness, faultless.

Philippians 3:7-11 Paragraph 4 of 7

Topic:

But whatever was to my
profit I now consider loss for the sake of
Christ. What is more, I consider
everything a loss compared to the
surpassing greatness of knowing
Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake
I have lost all things. I consider
them rubbish, that I may gain Christ
and be found in him, not having a
righteousness of my own that comes
from the law, but that which is
through faith in Christ-the
righteousness that comes from God and
is by faith. I want to know Christ
and the power of his resurrection and
the fellowship of sharing in his
sufferings, becoming like him in his
death, and so, somehow, to attain to
the resurrection from the dead.

Philippians 3:12-14 Paragraph 5 of 7

Topic: Pressing on towards the goal

Not that I have already obtained
all this, or have already been made
perfect, but I press on to take hold
of that for which Christ Jesus took
hold of me. Brothers, I do not
consider myself yet to have taken
hold of it. But one thing I do:
Forgetting what is behind and
straining towards what is ahead, I
press on towards the goal to win the
prize for which God has called me
heavenwards in Christ Jesus.

Philippians 3:15-16 Paragraph 6 of 7

Topic:

All of us who are
mature should take such a view of things. And if on
some point you think differently,
that too God will make clear to you.
Only let us live up to what we have
already attained.

Philippians 3:17-21 Paragraph 7 of 7

Topic:

Join with others in following
my example, brothers, and take note of
those who live according to the
pattern we gave you. For, as I have
often told you before and now say
again even with tears, many live as
enemies of the cross of Christ. Their
destiny is destruction, their god is
their stomach, and their glory is in
their shame. Their mind is on earthly
things. But our citizenship is in
heaven. And we eagerly await a
Saviour from there, the Lord Jesus
Christ, who, by the power that
enables him to bring everything under
his control, will transform our lowly
bodies so that they will be like his
glorious body.

Learn the components of the chapter until you have the ability to
quote the entire chapter without peeking. Then you may go on to
the next chapter of the book and do the same thing. You can start
memorizing the second chapter before finishing the first only as
long as you do not get ahead of yourself and do a poor job on
the first one.
Breaking the chapter up into chunks makes it more practical to memorize and to
review. Memorizing
the outline helps you keep the passages in order. When reviewing, now and always, try to
review a whole paragraph at one time.

Review a chapter like this:

Philippians chapter 3 of 4
7 paragraphs

Complete passage with pause between paragraphs

Memorizing scripture has two components. The first is spiritual and deals
with understanding, attitude and obedience. The second is purely mechanical and
is really not very spiritual at all. Much of the process of Scripture
memorization is not spiritual because it deals with the hard and time
consuming work of putting the text into your mind accurately. But, I
have been emphasizing that a
'successful' Scripture memory program is not measured according to how much
scripture you have put into your mind. A 'successful' Scripture memory
system takes the memorized Scripture and makes it a part of your life through
meditation, prayer and application. Meditation and application are spiritual. Meditation
on the memorized word will also reinforce what you have learned so that you
will never forget it.

The mechanical process can be further
divided into two parts. The first is initial memorization and the second
is review. Each of these requires a different set of skills which must
be developed.
You will find that the bulk of the time spent will not be in the memorization of the
chapters you want to learn, but in review. Also, after a while, it will be easier to memorize new material,
because your brain becomes trained to take in the new information. The difficult task will be
to maintain it and still learn new chapters at an acceptable rate. The solution has to be to
make review of scripture a way of life.

Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure,
whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable-if anything is excellent or praiseworthy-think about such things. (Php 4:8)

Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful. (Jos 1:8)

Oh, how I love your law! I meditate on it all day long. (Ps 119:97)

My eyes stay open through the watches of the night, that I may meditate on your promises. (Ps 119:148)

I think we should be able to discipline ourselves to do this. It has to be
just a matter of choice and training. Whenever you have a moment of free time, instead of grumbling about this or that
why not 'think-through' a chapter of Scripture? By default our minds often tend towards things
which are not beneficial. Why not refuse to do this? For example what do you think about
when you are washing dishes, sweeping, driving, waiting, folding laundry, walking, eating, etc. etc? Is it really of
value? Are you pleased with it? I find that I spend almost all of this time thinking about that which is either not profitable or
just sinful. Renounce sinful and unprofitable thinking and replace it
with God's word. If you can memorize a few chapters of Scripture, the review part will be done almost automatically, if
we place our minds on 'continuous playback' of the scripture we know. There are hours in the day were we are waiting for things or doing
things which does not really require a lot of concentration. Use this time to replay the
Scripture you know in your mind. When you get up each morning, put the chapters you plan to review in
your pocket so you can refer to them when you need to. The value to your walk with God could be immeasurable. I have been doing
this and can testify that it works. It did not take too long to train myself to do it
either. I am a busy person be I have reviewed up to 10 chapters of Scripture per
day and not have to dedicate any special time to it.

(Note added in 2004, about 5 years after writing the above paragraph:
I was able to do this, but have not been able too keep up the pace.
Perhaps it was my own lack of discipline, or perhaps I was trying to do too
much. I still think the idea of making Scripture review a sort of
continuous background task, but it has to be done at a sustainable level.
Currently I am working through the book of James with my children as I drive
them to school each morning. We started off in September with chapter
1 verse 1 and all a few words each day. Each day all three of us say
what we have memorized from the beginning to the part which is new.
It is going to take two years to do it, 10 minutes a day, but all of us will
know the book so well by the end of it that we will never forget. We
also learn to talk quickly. The good thing about what we are doing
here is that it seems to be sustainable. )

What I am saying is, make sure that you are reviewing Scripture at all times you are able to. With this
amount of review, you will not have to worry about how fast you are learning new chapters. You will
always have time to review it.

I am finding that I can review scripture like this each day for a week, then the next few days I spend learning new material before going
back to review again. I
carry around the printed out chapters in my pocket at all times. I keep a mental bookmark as to which paragraph needs to be
done next. Whenever I see an opportunity to review a paragraph I recite the next one in my mind to myself. If I am in the
car I can say it out loud. Wherever I am, if I have 30 seconds of time to give to review, I can do one paragraph. If I have more
time, I try to do more. At night I sometimes have used a small flashlight that I can use to look at the printed material if I get stuck. I can
review while I go to sleep, and for a few moments when I wake up in the middle of the night.

If you spend your spare moments like this, it will be less likely that you will fall into sin because your mind is always on the
word of God. Each day the 'world' gets a large chunk of my attention and time. Many of the things we encounter in our
daily lives will draw us away from a pure thought life. This type of meditation ensures that we can stay close to God.

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Copyright (c) 1997-2004 Stephen Simpson. All rights reserved. You may use
the material on these pages freely,
but it may not be sold under any circumstances whatsoever.

Scripture taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION,
Copyright (c) 1973, 1978, 1984 International Bible Society. Used by
permission of Zondervan Bible Publishers